ITI Profile: Marisol del Teso Craviotto

During my last year in high school, I considered different options for college. I could see myself as a historian, or perhaps I could study philosophy or art… Yes, all leading to very profitable jobs! But languages pulled me strongly in their direction and I finally settled on two possible degrees: translation or English philology.

I came to terms with the fact that my linguistic skills were not good enough to be a translator, so I ended up graduating with a BA in German and English Philology from the Universitat de València, in Spain. How I ended up in Natchitoches (Louisiana, US) after that is a funny story for another time. I’ll just say that my life has been full of happy coincidences that led me to complete an M.A. in English Composition from Northwestern State University of Louisiana and a Ph.D. in Linguistics, with a Minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies, from Cornell University. After that, I was hired as a linguistics professor at Miami University (not in Miami, Florida) in Oxford (not in England), Ohio.

Fast forward 20 years, and in 2022 I closed the circle by coming back to Europe and becoming an English to Spanish translator. Since I’d had two decades to finally hone my linguistic skills, I did an MA in Professional Translation to learn the trade, and here I am! I have not regretted the decision to change paths, not for a single minute.

I wanted to continue working on my life-time research interests, namely gender and migration, so I focus on the translation of texts from the social sciences and international development. My becoming a member of ITI was precisely because of my curiosity about the ITI International Development and Cooperation Network. Once I started looking into the association, I discovered the wonderful opportunities and resources ITI has for translators who are starting out like me. I am now the events officer for the IDC network as well as a member of the Spanish Network, and I try to engage as much as possible in professional development opportunities through ITI and beyond.

Beginnings are rough. Sometimes I wonder whether I’ll ever be able to support myself solely on my translation work, but then I look around and see that translators are a very special group of people, professionals who love their work and support each other, and I am very happy to count myself as one of them. ITI has given me the chance to start out my new career on a strong foot and offers me new goals to achieve. Qualified MITI Translator, here I come!